Thirty Summers is a unique and intriguing time travel romance that retains its lighthearted tone despite discussing some of the struggles faced by a lesbian in 2019 and one in 1989. A breezy read that packs a punch, backed by a creative idea that is executed wonderfully well (the author evidently put a lot of thought into the time travel aspect of her story, and it really shows).

I loved this concept - of Jessica being able to time travel to her seaside town as it was many decades ago, and seeing how her own experiences were different and similar. Her found family in the ‘past’ was sweet and I loved seeing how she came more into herself by finding places, people, and experiences that made her feel happy and fulfilled, if even in a different time. She was relatable and I often found myself nodding along to her inner monologues, but I could understand her thoughts and actions even if they were not relatable to me - which I loved. Trista and Jessica both felt 3D, almost, with the depth and consistent characterisation they had.

The romance was sweet! I just wish we’d seen more of Trista before Chapter… Nine, I think? (Slight spoilers: the night on the boat.) I loved seeing Jess and Trista’s conversations about being queer in their different times and how that shaped their personalities and relationships. Jessica reflected on her own privilege, living in 2019, and I loved the fact that many of her insecurities were addressed and overcome over the course of the book. Trista, too, was a delight - I loved seeing her perspective and her learning to let herself be happy.

The only thing that really detracted my enjoyment of the story was the writing style. I’m a writer myself, so I definitely understand writing in such a way - I did it for years myself, when I was new to writing - but it does bog down the narrative in places as it leads to a stiff, unnatural tone. It wasn’t always enough to pull me out of the story, and I look forward to the sequel, but I think this book definitely could’ve benefited from a few more contractions, more variation in sentence structure. And less adverbs used to describe someone’s speech or actions - more showing and less telling, I suppose.

Every now and then a book comes along that you can’t stop thinking about. Thirty Summers is one of those books. Jessica an avid teenage sailor takes to the sea and meets Trish in a coastal UK cafe where things aren’t exactly as they seem. This book had me questioning everything I know about time and left me in tears, but in the best of ways. Great debut novel and I’m hoping there’s a second novel told from Trish’s perspective.

Time travel and a sapphic romance, what more could you want? This book is such a feel good rom com. The characters are so believable and their romance hit me in the feels. The pacing was great and didn’t feel too fast or too slow at any point. Can’t believe this is a debut novel! This book covers a lot of ground with family drama, coming of age, friendship & tragedy all thrown into the mix. It’s a great read!

I was initially sold on the story, the plot idea stood out in the sea of otherwise pretty regular lesbian fiction. Upon reading, I discovered while the story is definitely there, there’s room for improvement in the writing department. I think that if the author finds more beta readers and is open to feedback, it can become a wonderful piece.
Also, extra points for the cover; few self-published writers have covers that good.

I did not get very far in this book because the writing felt very unfinished and elementary to me. It felt like a self-published novel that needed more editing and employed several common pitfalls of inexperienced writers. I decided not to finish it because I could tell that even if I enjoyed the narrative, I wouldn't like the writing, and it would annoy me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

The story was very interesting indeed. It's an unique idea and it's my first time reading something like this with basically time travel. I was intrigued when I first started reading the book and the story just got even more intriguing as I continued reading on.

I loved Jess and Trisha's relationship. It felt realistic, especially with all the problems they went through in 1989. I loved the portrayal of their relationship in both time periods.

Overall it's a really cool storyline, an emotional story and it allowed me to experience something different when reading it. Definitely deserves the 5 starts.

Full review will be on Goodreads as it contains spoilers.

Jessica is a young woman who enjoys nothing more than her own company, she escapes to her family coastal home in Cornwall at every opportunity to sail on her fathers boat, Cygnus.

Something different occurs on one trip as she sails into a local town, where she encounters love at first sight with a local café waitress, Trisha. Being so fixated on the young woman, she fails to recognise little oddities in the town. Only after visiting the town a couple of times she comes to the shocking realisation that she is not in her own time.

Both Jessica and Trisha re-examine their present, their future and themselves as individuals in this amazing love story.

Such a beautiful, LGBTQ+ representation, love story

Equally heart wrenching and heart warming, 30 Summers was full of unpredictable twists and turns. The ending left me wondering about the future outcome for Jess and Trish, but that's part of the fun of life's journey—I thought it was a fitting way to end it, especially considering all the time both of them spent waiting over time in their own lives to see each other again. Who are we, as the readers, to expect anything different for ourselves? Absolutely wonderful, highly recommend!!

Embarked on a amazing gender role identity adventure, I must admit putting a contemprary set up face to face with one of the 20th century does make us appreciate now how far we've come and how much effort was put into equality and gender norms

Thank you to indie author A.S. Randall, and as always NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of 30 SUMMERS.

30 SUMMERS is a scifi romance in which two women fall in love and follow each other across generations, lifetimes, and even death, just so they can be together in a time of relative safety and freedom. A.S. Randall, the author, is devoted to writing LGBTQ+ stories, and 30 Summers is her first full length work of fiction.

Time travel is a tricky theme. In this book, the time travel device is a boat, which I find so romantic. Trisha standing at the shore, scouring the waterline for the Cygnus, Jessica's boat, to appear on the horizon. I really like the time travel twist at the end also. The general thrust of the narrative is clever.

However, the twist at the midpoint of the novel feels like a reach. Suddenly, the narrative is strained from trying to carry too many different conflicts. The plot becomes convoluted for a while in the middle. But it gets back on track for a great ending.

Rating: ⛵️⛵️⛵️.5 / 5 sailboat time machines
Recommend? Yes
Finished March 28 2023
Read this if you like:
🌈 LGBTQ+ rep
👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏽 Sapphic romance
⌚️ Time travel

Talk about emotions, wow. When I saw this was a time traveling book, I was so excited to read it I bumped it up on my pile. I also love the cover, so that just added to me wanting to start it.

The book itself is about two MCs in different decades, with one traveling back in time. Be ready for more than a lighthearted novel as there are a few heavy topics tackled including homophobia & health. I ended it with happy tears though. Good debut novel

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of 30 Summers in exchange for an honest review!

30 Summers tells the story of Jess and Trisha, two women who fall in love across different timelines. Jess, currently living in 2019, takes her fathers boat, Cygnus, out on the water and sails to a local town, where she meets Trisha, a waitress living in 1989. We follow the two women as they search to discover themselves and their love for one another.

While reading the description of this book, I thought the concept was really fun and I was intrigued enough to give it a read. I really wish I had better things to say about my experience. There were certain things that I really liked. The Cygnus being able to take Jess back in time was a cool idea, and I like how she could come and go as she pleased to visit Trisha and her friends, Maude and Harold. The married couple were my favourite characters; they were extremely funny and likeable.

Unfortunately, I did find that most of the book was a bit frustrating to get through. While the majority of 30 Summers was told from Jess’ perspective, every once in a while events would be told from Trisha’s perspective without stating the POV had changed. I wasn’t too big a fan of this. I also found that Jess just seemed angry all the time, especially during moments where she should have shown empathy or care towards Trisha, when she needed support. Jess seemed very immature throughout the entire story. I can’t say that I was a fan of Trisha either, as she constantly played with Jess’ emotions when trying to figure out if being with Jess was something she really wanted.

I can understand why the author used Covid as the reason why Jess could not go back and visit Trisha, but I think this is where I lost interest in the story. I don’t know if I believe that the two deserved to end up together. After the Covid time jump, I don’t know if I could see Trisha, now as an older woman, agree to be with the young and clearly immature Jess.

Overall, I think the book was all over the place and could use some editing to make the story flow a bit better. Once again, I do want to stress that I did enjoy the concept of the book and I think this could be a great story if some things were changed.

If you're looking for a unique lesbian love story, 30 Summers is the book for you! <3 <3

I cannot tell you how much i enjoyed this book, the emotions, and surprising twists and turns, it had me hooked! I'm in love with this love story, it is beautiful, sad, happy and emotional!!! Keeping this review spoiler free.

I was given a free copy in return for a review. Thank you for this read!

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish "30 Summers". I found the author's tone of voice annoyingly naive, and not due to constructing a character that is a naive person, but simply due to lacking writing skills. Great idea for a story, very poor execution.

This was so cute! I enjoyed it. The writing didn’t really vibe with me but I enjoyed the story overall.

I only made it through half of this book because I really struggled with the main character and the plot. It seemed as though the main character's life only started with the first page of the novel, and it was hard to get any sense of depth with the character. In part, I think this was because the author wanted to write a character that spent a lot of time with her family and, consequently, had a lot of free time to go sailing. What this resulted in was an unrealistic character who free-loaded off her very wealthy parents, had no real perception of her own privilege, and who didn't really work and took 3 months off every year. It was hard to really root for a character like this. I think the author could have tried different ways to build the main character that would have still resulted in a main character who spends a lot of time sailing and lived with her parents in her twenties. For example, COVID-19 could have been a reason why the main character had moved back home, or they could have had grandparents and wider family who lived by the beach where they go sailing, or the main character could have just come back from studying abroad and wanted to have the summer with her parents before starting work.

30 Summers was such a great novel concept! I loved the mixture of time travel and romance. Kept me on my toes and wanted to know what happens at the end. I really liked the writing style and how sometimes it was from Jess's point of view and sometime's Trish's point of view. I always love a book that focuses on the LGBTQ+ community, and there was some controversy which is really needed today, as they still face so much discrimination in the community. I look forward to more novels from AS Randall in the future.

When Jess takes her father's boat out one day, just like she always did in the summer, she is faced with a reality that she may have traveled back in time. It's 1989 when she meets Trish, a waitress at her favorite "bar", but cafe in 1989. With time travel, love, some heartbreak and adventure, this novel has a little bit of everything. I loved the relationship between Jess and her father, it reminded me of my own. The ending was very bitter sweet also! Would recommend this book to all my friends.

throughout our childhoods, we think we have so much time, until we grow up and suddenly come to the realisation that we will never have enough. time becomes both a blessing and a curse, as our titular character in <i>30 summers</i> soon will realise.

our titular character is jessica, a young woman in 2019 aware of the freedoms we now have as women, and as queer women. trish is a young woman in 1989, suffering under the weight of her secret and the life she wishes she could live. as jessica sails the sea where she lives in an english coastal town she meets trish and soon becomes enamoured. it is in her state of enamour that she fails to recognise the difference in time, only realising on her next trip that can do what most could only ever dream of - time travel.

across 30 summers we witness a love story between two women both divided and joined by time, meant to be, but also meant to be apart. they love, they leave, and they wait. i will not spoil anything further, but i will say that the ending both made my heart soar and plummet simultaneously.

a. s. randall crafted a beautiful love story through an emotional concept, giving us a promising read indeed.

The book does have sensitive subjects and covers grief, loss and homophobia.

We meet Jess living in 2019 confident in her sexuality but still has a lot to learn about the world from living with her parents to finding love. It is established that Jess loves sailing and will often do so on her fathers boat with his permission. One day she travels on her boat to the harbour and soon after piecing bits together realises that somehow she is in 1989. Whilst enjoying her experience she also becomes infatuated with one of the waitresses there and vows to return.

We get to see Jess who is young and immature grow and understand how much has changed within the 30 years at the harbour. We get to see the contrast between the two girls coming out to their families and how their reactions were.

This is so much more than just a love story and covers so many topic. The ending wraps up the story nicely but also doesn't cut off the story completely meaning there is a potential for a spin off or leaves the reader to make their own decisions on how the story continues.

Thank you to A. S. Randall and NetGallery for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Find a short youtube review here.

What would you do if you could go back in time? Would you and if you could what would you do?
That is the premise of this book with the main characters, Jessica and Trisha. Jessica loves to sail on her father's boat, Cygnus. One day she sails and docks at a town. She notices things there aren't as she remembers. She goes into a diner and sees the waitress, Trisha, whom she is immediately attracted to. She keeps going back with the intention of seeing Trisha. All is going well until she picks up a newspaper and sees that the date is 30 years ago. She is shocked and realizes that is what is different about this town.
Her dad reveals that Cygnus can take you back in time, but you must not interact with others so they do not find out what time you are from or disrupt anything However, she is very interested in Trisha and does not heed his advice.
A very good book & I enjoyed reading it.
I would recommend.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.